Friday, June 24, 2011

Note to any candidate: Never say "Frankly I hope it's the other guy."

So I'm late to the party as usual in terms of catching up on the Party Convention last Saturday. Call me a nerd but I had a good time. Some of my candidates and issues won...others lost. All in all as it should be I suppose.

As a campaign junkie though I just had to include this note on what not to say if you ever hope to be elected to well...anything...

Read this article in the Provo Daily Herald about Dave Duncan, candidate (at the time) for State Party Chair: Duncan a long shot to win GOP Chair

A few excerpts to highlight:

"The heart of the question is who should have the ultimate say in party affairs? The delegates or the power brokers?" asked Duncan.

Duncan admits being this aggressive about the issues and putting his name out there for everyone to scrutinize is a bit out of his comfort zone. He even says he hopes another candidate for chair, Arnold Gaunt, wins on Saturday. The third candidate for chair is Thomas Wright.

"I hope that one of us gets elected," says Duncan. "Frankly, I hope it is Arnold."

But Duncan's name is on the ballot and he is hoping he can change minds on Saturday. He notes this group is a different group than the traditional GOP delegates that have been involved in the past. Many Tea Party delegates who brought down former U.S. Senator Bob Bennett will be voting again at the convention and Duncan hopes their resentment for the old guard might work in his favor, but he isn't holding out much hope for a victory.

"I think my chances are very slim," he said.

If you ever hope to win, don't ever say what Dave said in this article. It comes across as though he doesn't really want to win. I've seen this happen dozens of times, mostly during convention speeches where a candidate gets up and all but apologizes for even running at all.

My point is that if you are going to run - run for crying out loud. If you don't think you can win then you won't. It's 50% attitude 50% hard work - the last 10% is luck ;)

I actually like Dave. I believe he's sincere and committed. The interesting thing is given the way the voting worked out I think Dave really had a legitimate chance of winning his race. But I think his attitude towards winning as demonstrated by his comments proved to be his downfall.